Virtuoso at 25

1913

Paul Dardé created Eternal pain at 25, even though he had only just finished his year of training. Having gone through the Paris national school of Beaux-Arts and Rodin’s workshop, it is probably his journey to Italy and his mythological reading which fixed the theme of the Medusa in the mind of the artist. Carved from a block of plaster gleaned on the heights of Lodève, the piece would be exhibited seven years later side by side with the great Faun, at the Salon of French artists in 1920.

Bought by the state, Eternal pain is currently kept by the Musée dOrsay in Paris and will be returned to the Musée de Lodève for its reopening.